Wontoness

The Wontoness of Men The poetry within the same generation as Skelton and Spencer, around the 16th century, share the basic ideas of women fairly closely. Women usually do not have a voice in the poetry, women definitely do not write the poetry, and they are usually a pursuit of sorts within the poetry. In the case of both Womanhood, wonton, ye want and in the second book of the Fairy Queen on Guyon and temperance, the women within the poems are wanton. According to the Oxford English Dictionary wanton means women who are sexually immoral or promiscuous, or women who behave in a sexually promiscuous way. Men, on the other hand either are completely uninterested, or seem entirely innocent when it comes to the sexual promiscuity at hand. Men
The man in the poem insults the woman over and over, although it seemed she may have deserved it by sleeping with other men. Skelton writes, “To prayse youre porte it is nedeles; For all you draffe yet and youre dreggys, As well bourne as ye full oft tyme beggy”. The man is meaning the woman has nothing that interests him, he does not want to listen to her or even have her for sexual reasons. She is full of nothing useful to him. She is wanton because she sleeps with other men, however she will not sleep with him even though he buys her things and takes care of her. “Youre key is mete for euery lok, Youre key is commen and hangyh owte, Youre key is redy, we need not knok” (Skelton). This statement is astonishing and can be read multiple ways. The obvious having to do with her wantoness, she had no honor. She would give herself to any man, and was always ready to give. The not so obvious is that she does have a key, later in the poem Skelton lets the readers know she is a tavern owner or manager- one of few jobs women could hold at the time. She did have power within the society. The man in the poem is the one being mistreated, he buys her things and she sleeps with other men! The man in this poem is truly disgusted by her behavior and wants nothing from her sexually or
Guyon however, does seem to be wanton, but instead it is the maidens he is staring at that are described as wanton. Guyon finds himself in the Bower of Bliss where temptations are trying to lead him astray from his path. He finds two women bathing and wresting about. He begins to stare at them, watching what they do with each other and admiring what he can see of their naked bodies. Although this seems like it could be sexually immoral- wanton- the women in the bath are described as the wanton ones and Guyon, unwanton. Guyon becomes an innocent bystander as the women emerge from the pool, reveling themselves to him. “The wanton Maidens him espying, stood gazing a while at his unwonted guise” (Spenser, 66). After the women see Guyon the start to approach him, he seems to be in a trance unable to leave this temptation. He is only turned away when Palmer, a better Christian than Guyon, guides him away from the women and reminds him he has a path to